Controller for musical instruments.



A. JAMESON.

CONTROLLER FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 16, 1912.

Patented Apr. 11, 1916.

4 SHEETSSHEET I A. JAMESON.

CONTROLLER FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED DELI-6,1912.

1,179,1 87.- Patented Apr. 11, 1916. I 4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Fill-lag A..JAMESON.

CONTROLLER FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC- 15, I912.

Patented Apr. 11, 1916.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3,

A. JAMESON.

CONTROLLER FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 16. 1912.

1,"179,1 8 7. Q Patented Apr. 11,1916.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

ALEXANDER J'AMESON, OF INDIANAPbLIS, INDIANA.

CONTROLLER FOB MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 11', 1916.

Application filed December 16, 1912. Serial No. 736,939.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ALEXANDER JAMnsoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Controller for Musical Instruments, of'which thesfollowing is a specification.

The object of my invention is to produce mechanism by means of which the operation of a mechanical musical instrument may be controlled as to all of its operations by one hand of an operator who may, if desired, be at a point distant from the instrument so that the operator may, while facing an audience in order to perform as' a singer also control the operation of the mechanicai musical instrument and cause it to thereby produce an accompaniment to'his other performance. I The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention as applied to a player piano.

Figure 1 is a front elevation largely diagrammatic, illustrating the general arrangement of the various portions of my device; Fig. 2 a detail, about full size, 0 my improved hand piece, one of the mating portions of the main body having been removed;

Fig. 3 a perspective view of a desirable means for operating one of the throttle valves; Fig. 1 a detail of a convenient form of relief valve; Fig. 5 a sectional view, somewhat larger than full size, of the pneumatic shown in Fi 3; Fig. 6 a section of a pair of mating p ates by means of which connection may be conveniently made between my improved hand piece and the various elements of mounted most conveniently within the casing of the musical instrument; Fig. 7 a plan of one of the plates shown in Fig. 6; Fig. 8 a fragmentary detail of the means for automatically compensating for variations in vacuum in the main chamber; and Fig. 9 a View similar to Fig. 1 butshowin my improvements so embodied that the nger operated controlling members are set in the key-board of the piano; Fig. 10 a front elevation of a modified tempo controller, and Fig. 11 a diagram of the string-striking mechanism.

, While no attempt the various parts to will be noted that in has been made to show any particular scale it Fig. 1 the various tubes and other portions which are shown in full my invention which are to belines as part of my invention are relatively largely exaggerated in size while Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are practically fullsize.

In Fig. 1 of the drawings, I have indicated most of the piano and the usual automatic player mechanism in dotted lines in order to avoid confusion.

In the drawings 10 indicates the usual vacuum chamber of a player piano connected by pipes 11 and 12 with the wind trunks 13 and 14 respectively, said wind trunks leading to the bass and treble ends respectively of any desirable form-of pneumatic action 15 by means of which the string-striking mechanism of the'piano may be manipulated. Manipulation of the various elements of the pneumatic action 15 is controlled by a music sheet 16 carried over the usual tracker board 17 by means of a pneumatic sheet-motor 18 which is connected by a trunk 19 with the chamber 10. The piano may be provided with a soft pedal rail 21 actuated through a link 22 by a power pneumatic .23 connected in the usual manner by pipe 24 with chamber 10. This pneumatic 23 may be of any common form provided with a controlling pneumatic, said controlling pneumatic having a tube 25 leading into it by means of which the action of the power pneumatic 23 may be controlled in the usual manner by opening and closing communication between the atmosphere and p controlled in its action through the medium of a pipe 32. The apparatus thus far described does not differ from apparatus now commonly known and in the market.-

The fundamental element of my improvement is the finger-controlled mechanism, preferably embodied in a hand piece, illustrated in Fig. 2, which may be grasped in onehand of the operator and its various elements or members controlled by comparatively small movements of the fingers and thumb of the holding hand. This hand piece comprises a main body 41 which may be conveniently made in mating halves so as to form a hollow body of convenient size and shape to be readily grasped in the hand in such manner that the ends of the fingers and thumb may be free for convenient movements. In the present drawings, this hand piece is shown as provided with four pockets 42, 43, 44, and 45, in which are mounted hollow rubber balls or bodies 42,

43, 44, and 45, respectively. Leading.

from the balls 42', 43', 44', and 45 are tubes 46, 47, 48, and 49, respectively, which are brought together and, in association with other similar tubes to which reference will be made, are united into a flexible cable 51, one end of which is secured to the lower end of the hand piece 41. The cable 51 may be of any desired length and at its oppositeend the several tubes, which go to make up this cable, are conveniently connected to individual nipples 52 carried by a plate 53 which may be removably clamped upon a similar plate 54 mounted within the casing of the piano, said plate being provided with nipples 55 corresponding with the nipples 52 and having tubes 61, c2, c3, 64, 65, 66, 67, and 68 leading therefrom to various points within the piano casing. Also mounted within the main body 41 are distendable and collapsible pneumatics 71, 72, 73, and 74 which may conveniently be of the form shown in Fig. 5, or some other form. Leading from the pneumatics 71, 72, 73, and 74 are pipes 75 7 6, 77, and 78 respectively and which also form part of cable 51 and leading to plate 53 the several tubes or pipes forming cable 51 are connected to the nip ples of plate 53 in such manner that tube 46 connects with tube 68, tube 47 with tube 62,

tube 48 connects with'tube 61, tube 49 connects with tube 67, tubes 75 and 76 connect with tubes 66 and 65 respectively, andtube.

77 and 78 connect with tubes 64 and 63 respectively. The pneumatics 71 and 72 are connected to be operated simultaneously in opposite directions by means of an arm 81 carried by a plunger 82 reciprocably mounted within hand piece 41 and normally urged outwardly from the hand piece by a spring 83. Similarly the pneumatics 73 and 74 are connected for simultaneous opposite manipulation by an arm 84 also carried by the plunger 82, the said plunger having a thumb piece 85 at its outer end by means of which it may be readily moved inwardly by the thumb, of the operator grasping the hand piece 41. Located in the wind trunk 19, which leads from the motor 18 to chamber 10, is a throttle valve 86 rovided with an operating arm 87 which is connected to a rod 88 the ends of. which are carried by the movable membersof a pair of pneumatics 91 and 92 which are connected to pipes 66 and 65 respectively, the arrangement being such that, when the valve 86 is wide open,

force.

one of the pneumatics will be expanded and the other pneumatic will be collapsed.

Arranged beneath the tracker board 17 are two pneumatics 93 and 94'the swinging leaves of which are connected together for simultaneous movement in opposite directions so that when'one pneumatic is expanded the other will be collapsed. These two pneumatics are connected to the pipes 63 and 64 respectively. The swinging leaves of the pneumatics 93 and 94 carry a pointer 95 which is extended over the face of the music sheet 16 so that, if the music sheet be provided with a tempo line, such as is commonly found in music prepared for use in players equipped with a metro style, the operator, by causing the end of the pointer 95 to substantially track with the tempo line on the music sheet, by manipulation of the plunger 82, will also cause a corresponding manipulation of valve 86 in such manner as to vary the speed of movement of the music sheet, in a manner to be described.

Arranged in the tubes 11 and 12 are throttle valves 101 and 102. These valves 101 and 102 may be duplicates and they are only shown diagrammatically in Fig. 1. A convenient form for this valve, as Well as a pneumatic actuator therefor, is shown in Fig. 3 where the valve 101 is shown as a swinging balanced plate conveniently elliptical in form so that it may either lie axially within its tube 11 so as to practically leave an undisturbed passage therethrough, or, by a swing of less than 90, accurately close the tube. By providing a pivot shaft 103 for this valve diametrically of the tube 11 the valve is substantially balanced in all of its positions irrespective of the force of any air traveling through the tube and consequently may be swung to and held in any desired position by the exertion of a very small Each shaft 102 is shifted by a suitable pneumatic 111 and in the form shown in Fig. 3 is provided with a crank arm 104, the pin 105 of which is engaged by one end of a link 106 the other end of said link being pivoted upon a pin 107 projected laterally from a guide rod 108 which is secured by a head-109 to oneof the outer rings of a multi-pouch pneumatic 111 which may be conveniently formed by connecting a plurality of rings of very light rubber sheet, in

the manner illustrated in Fig. 5, the other outer ring of saidpneumatic 111 being connected by a nipple 112 with a support 113 which may be readily attached to the tube 11, (or any other tube). The support 113 also carries a finger 114 to serve as a guide for the rod 108 which, within the pouch 111, is conveniently provided with a needlelike extension 115. In Fig. 1 I have not attempted to indicate any of the details of construction of the apparatus shown in Fig.

3 because the scale is entirely too small.

The pneumatic 111 or 111, is connected to pipe 68 and, with pipe 46 and ball 42', there is produced a closed pneumatic train which,

when assembled with the ball 42 distended, has the pneumatic 111 collapsed so that, by exerting pressure upon ball 42 so as to collapse it, the pneumatic will be expanded and valve 101 thus swung toward closed position. Similarly, the valve 102 may be manipulated by means of a pneumatic 117 which is in all respect'silike the pneumatic 111 and is connected-to its valve 102 by mechanism like that shown in Fig. 3. In the general view of the drawings, because of the smallness of the scale, the parts 111 and 117 are conventionalized for convenience in' illustration and also to indicate that, while the specific construction shown in Fig. 5 .is desirable, other forms of pneumatic may be used if desired.

As is well known, power pneumatics like the pneumatics 23 and 29 which are used for automatically operating the sustaining pedal rail and soft pedal rail, may be manipulated by opening andclosing communication between atmosphere and the interior of a pipe which leads to the secondary of the power pneumatic. In order therefore to control the power pneumatic 23 from the hand piece 41 I provide an apparatus like that shown in Fig. 4, said figure being about full size. This apparatus consists of a base plate 121 to which is secured a 'T tube 122 the head of the T being insertible into any pipe line, as for instance, into the end of pipe 25 or into an intermediate point of its length in case the piano mechanism is of that type which is provided with an ordinary means controlled from the tracker board for manipulating these power pneumatics 23 and 29. The shank of the T tube 122 is closed by a puppet valve 123 which is controlled by a swinging arm 124 pivoted at 125 to plate 121, the valve 123 being normally held in closed position by a spring 126 acting on aim 124. Between plate 121 and arm 124 is a pouch pneumatic 127 provided with a nipple 128 to which a tube, as for instance, tube 67, may be connected. For the sake of brevity the entire valve mechanism shown in Fig. 4 may be conveniently designated by a letter V. Similarly pipe 32 is provided with a valve mechanism V the- -pouch of which is connected with the tube 61.

In the rewinding of a music sheet, it is common experience to have the motor coninto or adjacent the tracker board 17 so as to be normally closed by the music sheet. By' this arrangement, whenever the initial end of pipe 133 is uncovered, the-throttle valve 131 will be closed if there is any vacuum in chamber 10.

l/V hen the instrument is being controlled, through the medium of my improved hand piece, from a'point distant from the instrument, the vacuum within chamber 10 cannot be produced by the same operator and as the force of actuation of the stringstriking pneumatics (the pneumatic action 15) is dependent not only upon the positions of valves 101 and 102, but also upon the amount of vacuum in chamber 10, it is desirable that some automatic means be provided by which valves 101 and 102 cannot be closed so far (by manipulation of the hand piece) as to prevent actuation of the pneumatic action 15. For that reason, the stem of valve 101 is provided with an arm 161 which travels, during the closingmovement of the valve 101, in the path of movement of the movable member of a pneumatic valve 101 in direct proportion to the vacuum in chamber 10.

Similarly-'the range of movement of valve 102 is automatically determined by a pneumatic 162 connected by a pipe 163 with chamber 10.

It is desirable to control the motor of the music sheet, not only as to its normal speed for the production of music at any desired tempo, but also to'be able to temporarily increase or'diminish the speed relative to the adjusted normal, For that purpose I have devised the arrangement shown in Fig. 10.

In this figure 860 indicates the throttlevalve which is connected by tube 50 with a pneu-- matic 502 mounted on-a movable carrier 503. The movable leaf of pneumatic 502 is connected by a link 504 with onearm o f-an operating lever 505 held yieldingly in an intermediate position by a spring 506, the arrangement being such that the capacity of the pneumatic 502 may be varied by swinging lever 505 and also such that the capacity of the pneumatic 502, relative to the normal position of lever 505 may also be varied by shifting the pneumatic, with its carrier 503 bodily toward or from the normal position of the operating lever. The shifting of the carrier 503 may be accomplished by any desired means, as by the eccentric 507 and strap 508 carried by the eccentric and connected to the carrier. To indicate the position of the carrier, eccentrio 507 may carry an indicator finger 509 arranged to traverse a tempo scale 510. In operation finger 509 is shifted to indicate the desired tempo and this movement, through eccentric 507, link 508, and carrier 505 will shift pneumatic 502 relative to lever 505 so as to increase or diminish the capacity pneumatic 500 and valve 860 so that the sheet motor will be properly controlled 'as to its normal speed. This normal speed may then be increased or diminished temporarily by shifting lever 505 from its normal position by any desired means.

It is thought that the operation of my device is readily apparent from the preceding description. The several portions of my improved hand piece and their connections operate independently each unit comprising a closed pneumatic train, the final pneumatic of which is controlled in its operation and position by a manipulation of the initial pneumatic. By pneumatic as used in the preceding sentence and in most instances in the preceding description, I mean an element containing a .fluid and capable of collapse and expansion either by means of an externally applied force or by reason of a transfer of fluid internally relative to such element.

The controlling valve structure, like that shown in Fig. 3, is most conveniently so formed that its tube 11 will be a short nipple readily insertible in the air line of an existing player mechanism, so that my device may thus be readily placed in commercial player pianos.

In the form shown in Fig. 9, the elements aresubstantially the same except that instead of providing a hand piece ll which may be carried to and tant point from the piano, the operating balls 42, 43, a4 and i5. and the pneumatics 7 1, 72, 73, and 74 together with the associated parts are arranged substantially as permanent fixtures in the key board of the piano immediately adjacent the free ends of the keys.

In Fig. 11, I have indicated diagrammatically string-striking mechanism S designed to operate against the string 8, the opera tionbeing accomplished by pneumatic action P, the drawing being intended merely to indicate in the most general way any desired or desirable form of string-striking mechanism.

of pneumatic 502 and thus shift operated from a dis- I claim as my invention:

1. In a piano player, the combination of a plurality of controlling valves for independently controlling various elements of the player mechanism, a plurality of expansible and collapsible fluid tight members arranged each adjacent one of said controlling valves and connected thereto, aliand piece comprising a main body which may be grasped in the hand of an operator and also comprising a multiplicity of expansible and collapsible members arranged for manipulation by the fingers of the grasping hand of an operator, and fluid tight connections between the several expansible and collapsible members of the hand piece and the corresponding expansible and collapsible members adjacent the controlling valves.

2. In a piano player, a wind trunk, means for establishing an air current through said trunk, a controlling valve arranged in said trunk, means for shifting said valve to various positions between its limits, a stop for variably limiting the valve in one direction, and a pneumatic controlling said stop, said pneumatic having a connection with the means for establishing an air current through the wind trunk.

3. In a piano player, the combination with means for actuating the sound producing members of the piano, a controller for determining the force of such actuation, and means by which said controller may be variably positioned within its limit of movement, a stop for determining the limit of movement of said controller in one direction, and means for shifting said stop tovarious limiting positions, said means bein connected with and operated by a portion of the means for actuating the sound producing members.

4:. In a player piano, the combination with sound producing mechanism, a Wind chest forming part of said sound producing mechanism, and means for producing a differential air pressure in said wind chest, of a controlling valve arranged between said wind chest and the sound producing mechanism, means for variably positioning said valve within the limits of its m'ovement, a stop for variably limiting said valve in one direction, a pneumatic controlling the position of said stop, and a connection between said pneumatic and the wind chest. 5. A controlling hand piece for piano players comprising a main body which may be substantially inclosed within the confines of the fingers of one hand of an operator, a plurality of expansible and contractible air chambers carried by said main body, and individual conduits leading from said chambers.

6. The combination, of a piano, mechanical means for automatically sounding the same comprising individual string-vibrattrolled, and a controlling hand-piece which 7 tion of a group of string'sounding motorsv may be arrangedat a distance from the piano, and of such size and form as to be substantially inclOSed within the confine of the fingers of one hand of an operator, said hand-pieces comprising a movable member connected to and controlling the said mam controller, said hand-piece also comprising a movable member connected to and controlling the music-sheet-motor-controller.

7. The combination, of a piano, mechanical means for automatically sounding'the same comprising individual string-vibrating.

members and individual motors therefor, a main controller by which the force of operamay be controlled, and a controlling handpiece which may bearranged at a'distance from the piano and of such size and form as to be substantially inclosed within the con,-

fines of the fingers of one hand of an oper-' ator, said hand piece comprising a movable member connected to and controlling the said main controller. p

8. The combination with a mechanical musical instrument comprising individual sound producing members, means for individually operating said members, a music sheet for controlling the movement of said] sound producing devices, a motor for driving said music sheet, means for controlling the speed of said sheet motor, and means for controlling the force applied for the indi-' vidual operation of the sound producing devices, of a hand piece of such size and orm as to be'substantially inclosed in the confines of the fingers of one hand of an opercontrolling the force applied to the sound a producing mechanism.

9. The combination with a piano and pneumatic playin apparatus therefor comprising individua ly operable sound producing members, pneumatic motor members connected with said sound producing devices, a valve for controlling the force of said pneumatic motors, a valve motor associated with said valve for moving the same, a music sheet for controlling the operation of said pneumatic motors, a'wind motor for driving said music sheet, a valve for controlling the speed of said wind motor, and a second motor for moving saidwind motor valve, of a hand implement flexibly and distantly connected with said pneumatic playing apparatus, said hand implement being of such size and-form as to be substantially inclosed within the confines of the fingers of one hand of an operator and comprising a movable memberconnected with and controlling the operation of the first mentioned valve motor, and also comprising a second stantially inclosed within-the confines of the fingers of one hand of an operator and comprising a multiplicity of movable members individually operable by the fingers of the operator, and means controlled by the several individually operable members of the hand-piece for independently controlling the action of portions of the automatic mechanism.

In witness whereof, -I have hereunto set my hand and seal at Indianapolis, Indiana, this 12th day of December, A. D. one thou} sand nine hundred and twelve.

ALEXANDER JAMESON. [L.s.]

Witnesses:

FRANK A.v FAHLE G. B. SGHLEY. 

